South Africa see off a wicketless session in which they scored 101 to extend their lead to 382
Both Tristan Stubbs and Temba Bavuma hit half-centuries • AFP/Getty Images
Lunch South Africa 191 and 233 for 3 (Stubbs 70*, Bavuma 64*, Jayasuriya 2-94) lead Sri Lanka 42 by 382 runs
Temba Bavuma eased to his second half-century of the match, Tristan Stubbs strode to an assured fifty of his own, and the pair turned South Africa’s dominant position into a commanding one in a session that yielded 101 runs. Though they operated in the best batting conditions the game has seen so far, that they played out a wicketless session is nevertheless remarkable; day two had seen the fall of 19 wickets.
Their unbeaten 144-run stand carried South Africa to a lead of 382 by lunch, with Bavuma on 64, and Stubbs on 70.
The highest successful fourth-innings chase at this venue is 340, so Sri Lanka would already need to shatter records if they are to even dream of another miraculous Kingsmead win. They did create a chance off Stubbs in this session, Vishwa Fernando finding the outside edge of the bat only for Angelo Mathews to grass the chance diving low to his left at slip.
There were, in addition, half-hearted lbw shouts, and late in the session, a very difficult catching opportunity created by wicketkeeper Kusal Mendis, as he moved to his left anticipating a lap-sweep, again off the bat of Stubbs. But largely, Sri Lanka’s bowlers were muted. The quicks’ speeds had dropped, unsurprisingly perhaps, given the amount of bowling they’ve had to do over the last three days. And the surface was not turning especially big for left-arm spinner Prabath Jayasuriya.
Bavuma hit his first ball of the day for four, flicking Lahiru Kumara through midwicket. But largely, the batters bedded in in the first half hour of play, picking off singles, as Kumara went short at the batters, and Jayasuriya flighted the ball, searching for those early breakthroughs.
Stubbs too, was muted. His first boundary was a nicely-placed reverse sweep past the slip off Jayasuriya, in the eighth over of the day. Aside from that one chance off Vishwa’s bowling, however, he seemed almost totally in control, rarely having his outside edge beaten, though the seamers did pass his inside edge to raise lbw appeals every now and then. The bounce in this Kingsmead surface mean the ball was likely passing over the stumps. Stubbs was especially good against Jayasuriya, pouncing on his errors of length with especial severity, to hit him through point, or drive him through cover.
Bavuma used the depth of the crease against the spinner, and occasionally ventured the hard flat sweep, which brought him one boundary. He got to his half-century off the 112th ball he faced. Stubbs got there off his 121st ball.
With off spinner Dhananjaya de Silva bringing himself on to bowl some cheap overs as Sri Lanka awaited the second new ball, batting became even easier for the right-handers. Stubbs crashed a huge six off Dhananjaya over long in the overs approaching lunch.
Andrew Fidel Fernando is a senior writer at ESPNcricinfo. @afidelf
